1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates in general to an electrical connector, and more particular to an electrical connector with a solder ball locking structure.
2. Description of the Related Art
Referring to FIG. 1, a conventional electrical connector includes a base 10 and a plurality of terminals 15. The base 10 has a plurality of terminal slots 11. The terminals 15 are disposed in the terminal slots 11, respectively. Each terminal 15 has one end formed with a contact 16 and the other end formed with a horizontal connecting piece 17. The middle of the connecting piece 17 is concave and formed with a cup to which a solder ball 19 is bonded.
The above-mentioned structure has the following drawbacks.
First, a flux is applied to the connecting pieces 17, and then the solder balls 19 are respectively disposed on the connecting pieces 17 through a jig in an aligned manner. Thus, the manufacturing processes are too complicated.
Second, the bottom of the solder ball 19 is bonded to the horizontal connecting piece 17. Because the bonding point is located at the bottom, no circumferential wall for positioning the solder ball should be formed on the base 10 around the solder ball 19 because the circumferential wall isolates heat and is disadvantageous to the hot bonding process. Thus, only the cup can be formed at the middle of the connecting piece 17 such that the solder ball can be placed in the cup. However, the method of positioning the solder ball is not stable enough. In particular, when the solder ball connection points of the connector are getting denser and denser, the solder balls and the cups of the connecting pieces are getting smaller and smaller, and the poor positioning effect of the solder balls on the connecting pieces 17 is getting more and more obvious.
Third, no block portion is disposed around each solder ball, so the short-circuited phenomenon between two adjacent solder balls occurs when the gap between the solder balls is quite small.